The Inaugural Emilia Switgall Lecture

Location

Manchester Auditorium

Free

Reception to follow in the Manchester Conference Center Lobby

This event is free and open to the public. Please RSVP to cctc@sandiego.edu or by phone (619) 260-7936.

Fr. John O’Brien is a Spiritan missionary priest, originally from Ireland, who works in Pakistan and is the CCTC Visiting Fellow, Fall 2011. His particular expertise is in the areas of the catholic social tradition, liberation theology, contemporary ecclesiology and Muslim-Christian encounters and relations. Fr. O'Brien's previous stations have included inner city missionary work in Ireland and teaching posts in schools and universities in Sierra Leone, Ireland and England. He received his licentiate in 1977 and his doctorate in 1988 from the Gregorian University in Rome and had previously attended the Pontifical University of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Ireland, and Kimmage Manor, Dublin. His STL was on Karl Rahner’s Christology and his doctorate was on the Option for the Poor published as a monograph by Liturgical Press, Collegeville as Theology and the Option for the Poor (1992).

His work in Pakistan has included working with housing cooperatives, adult education, youth work and pastoral ministry especially among urban ‘sweepers,’ as they are known, and most recently in Sindh with bonded agricultural laborers. He has published widely, including recently on the need for an inculturated Pakistani ecclesiological identity in The Construction of Pakistani Christian Identity (Lahore 2006) and The Unconquered People: The Liberation of an Oppressed Caste (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2012).

For more information about John O'Brien, including a full list of his speaking engagements at USD, please click here.

The CCTC is extremely grateful to all those who have helped make John O’Brien’s presence on campus possible, including the Center for Educational Excellence, the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, University Ministry, the USD Changemaker Hub and the Center for Community Service-Learning.